Beauty prevails

Alisa Woods’ philosophy on interior design is all about bringing beauty into your personal space—which is why she named her store A Beautiful Life Furnishings. But she doesn’t run any ordinary furniture store. Aside from filling her showroom with colorful, modern pieces for any room in—or outside of—your house, she also hosts art shows every other month and holds art classes, plus lessons on personalizing the furniture you buy. Woods opened A Beautiful Life Furnishings 2 1/2 years ago after two decades of working in interior design in the Bay Area and on Maui. Visit her store at 250 E. First St. Wednesday-Monday, or check it out online at abeautifullifefurnishings.com. Design consultations available.

Where do you find the furniture you sell?

I have found a source that lets me purchase floor models at interior design showrooms that are to-the-trade only. So, they bring in all-new items several times a year and when they do that, they need to liquidate their floor models. They usually all come in with a price tag on them, and if I can hold at that wholesale price, I absolutely do that and pass it along to my customers.

How did you end up in Chico?

I decided to come back to California [from Hawaii] and I stopped in Chico to visit my brother and sister-in-law, then I was going to go back to the Bay Area and look for a cute little town to move to. But I stopped here, and I was just like, “Why do I need to go over there?”

Why feature local artists?

I know how hard it is to be an artist and make money, so I sort of wanted to do a combination—where I brought in local art and showed it with the furniture and took away that part that people get really scared about buying local art. I wanted to show them how to mix it all together and how this matches that and you don’t have to match the sofa to the art or the art to the sofa. That’s something my mother taught me when I was really young—never buy the art to match the sofa. You buy the art because you love the art, because it brings you emotion or beauty.

You also offer classes?

One of the things that happens with our furniture is sometimes it comes in with little dings and nicks on it. So, I needed to find a way to rectify that. I found a fabulous paint line, and I now sell the paint line, I paint things for people, and I turned it also into a class—if you want that shabby chic, that farm style, a European antique, we can kind of teach you all these different styles. There’s really nothing better to me than when they come into their house and they see that piece of furniture and they love it and they go, “I did that.” It’s such a great feeling.